Hitherto, many voice alarm output switching apparatuses for use in automobiles have been studied and developed, and a relatively large number of such apparatuses have been put into practical use. However, such an apparatus for use in an outboard engine does not exist.
As a voice alarm output switching apparatus for use in an automobile, for instance, there is known the invention disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 57-55240. According to that invention, a system is provided in which the operation of the transceiver, stereophonic phonograph, radio, or the like provided in the interior of the automobile is automatically controlled by the voice of a drive (instead of by manual operation) and, at the same time, the command announced by the driver is confirmed by a synthesized voice. If an abnormality of a section of the vehicle occurs, it is announced by the synthesized voice. When such an abnormal state occurs, outputting of the alarm voice takes precedence over the arithmetic operations of a computer which controls the automatic operation of each apparatus in the vehicle.
However, according to the foregoing invention disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 57-55240, the switching between the voice alarm output and, for instance, the radio output is controlled by a microcomputer (that is, it is controlled by the software of the microcomputer). Therefore, a controller needs to be provided between the microcomputer and the radio and the like. The whole construction becomes complicated and expensive. Further, since the switching is executed by the software, there is an inconvenience in that the response speed is slow.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the inconveniences of such a conventional arrangement and to provide a voice alarm output switching apparatus for use in an outboard engine, in which the construction is simple, the apparatus can be cheaply manufactured, and the response speed is high when switching from an output of a radio or the like to a voice alarm output.